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PRESIDENT'S COLUMN

Can You Believe It?  How to Determine Credibility in the Era of Fake News
Lynn Silipigni Connaway
August 25, 2017

As you will read elsewhere in this newsletter, the Board has decided to suspend publication of the Bulletinbecause of the retirement of the editor, and feedback that ASIS&T should offer different and varied forms of communication. Given this turn of events, I decided to take a different focus on a prominent topic in the news as well as a major focus of my research.

There is much discussion about identifying fake news, determining the credibility, trustworthiness, and integrity of information, and fact checking (Domonoske 2016; Maheshwari 2016; McCoy 2016). Oxford Dictionaries even announced the word “post-truth” as the Word of the Year 2016 (Oxford Living Dictionaries 2017). Oxford Dictionaries states that the word has been in existence for about a decade but there was a spike in the frequency of the use of the word in 2016 “in the context of the EU referendum in the United Kingdom and the presidential election in the United States” (English Oxford Living Dictionaries 2016).

As an elementary school student, I remember being taught how to determine trustworthy sources of information, including people. We were taught to find information about the author and who had referenced the author as well as learn more about the source document. This was taught before we ever had access to online sources, which can present even more challenges than the print environment. After all, a 1993New Yorkercartoon at the onset of the internet age stated “on the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”[i]

During the past decade, I have been involved in research that identifies how and why individuals get their information and engage with technology. This research has provided insights into how individuals determine credibility and select online sources. When we interviewed students in their last year of secondary school and in all levels of their undergraduate programs in the US and UK, we heard some interesting theories for determining credible online sources (Connaway, Lanclos, and Hood 2013a, 2013b; Connaway, White, Lanclos, and Le Cornu 2013). One stated, "It depends. It depends who's made the website or what I have been told about the website or whether I know about it at all. But — it sounds silly — but sometimes you can just tell whether a website looks reliable or not depending on how professional [it] looks and who's written it" (Digital Visitors and Residents, UKU6, Female, Age 19, Emerging). Another stated, “I always stick with the first thing that comes up on Google because I think that’s the most popular site which means that’s the most correct” (Digital Visitors and Residents,USS1, Female, Age 17, High School Student). Others are either overwhelmed by the amount of information they retrieve from search engines, often satisficing their information needs with the first several items or links listed on the results page.

These comments indicate the broad range of criteria and the rationale used to determine credibility of sources. The context and situation of the need also determine the effort expended on discovering and accessing sources. In our research, we learned that individuals will exert less effort if the rewards or punishments are low level. For example, secondary and high school students indicate that the amount of effort expended on acquiring sources depends on the worth of the assignment, i.e., the percentage the assignment will contribute to the grade. If an assignment only is worth 5% of the grade, some students will spend less time and effort on this assignment than one that is worth 25% of the grade. Why not? Time is valuable and sparse so individuals must make choices on where to spend their time.

A Google search on “how to determine credibility of sources” retrieved a list of about 685,000 results. I found many university libraries, writing centers, and other academic department sites and LibGuides that provide guidelines for evaluating the quality and credibility of sources. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) also created an infographic that includes eight steps for determining the credibility of a news item (IFLA 2017). However, the real challenge may be in making evidence-based informed decisions throughout all stages of our personal and professional/academic lives. This means that we need to be able to collect the evidence, determine whether it is credible and trustworthy, and then make informed decisions. This is a concern that was voiced by academic library administrators and provosts at academic institutions in the US when they were interviewed for the project, Action-oriented research agenda on library contributions to student learning and success, which OCLC has undertaken in partnership with the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) (Connaway, Harvey, Kitzie, and Mikitish 2016, 2017). Many of our individual semi-structured interviews with provosts, which took place several days after the November 2016 US presidential election, were centered on how educators and information professionals must be involved in educating students to be functioning and informed citizens. The provosts stressed the importance of educational institutions teaching critical literacy skills to students so they are able to differentiate between facts and fiction both within and outside of the academy (Najmabadi 2017a). Critical literacy skills also have been identified as one of the top trends in higher education in a 2017Chronicle of Higher Education Special Report (The Chronicle of Higher Education 2017; Najmabadi 2017b, 2017c).

Considering the importance of determining whether the information we are receiving is fact or fiction, I invited several speakers to address this issue at the ASIS&T 2017 Annual Meeting, Diversity of Engagement: Connecting People and Information in the Physical and Virtual Worlds,in Washington, DC. The President’s Invited Panel, Digital Literacy in the Era of Fake News: Key Roles for Information Professionals, is scheduled on Monday, October 30, from 10:30AM to 12:00PM. The invited speakers currently conduct research and lead teaching and learning on determining the credibility of information and identifying fake news and sensationalized scientific claims. Heidi Julien, representing the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE), will focus on ways to help individuals develop their critical thinking skills to manage massive amounts of information. Michael Seadle, representing the iSchools consortium, will discuss a grayscale measure that provides a broad range of options for determining the degree of truth or fakeness by the density of the facts. Alex Kasprak, science editor at snopes.com, will explain how science fake news differs from other fake news and will discuss ways to identify false science online.

 I look forward to connecting with you at the Annual Meeting, Diversity of Engagement: Connecting People and Information in the Physical and Virtual Worlds, where we will be celebrating ASIS&T’s 80thAnniversary. We have changed the schedule a bit this year in honor of this milestone. We will be hosting a University Alumni Tea on Tuesday, October 31, 2017, instead of a reception and the Professorswill be performing on Sunday, October 29, after the combined Welcome and 80thAnniversary Reception. The Women Leaders of the Information Field Happy Hour is back by popular demand and will be held on Saturday, October 28. We are looking forward to SIG CON on Halloween so don’t forget your costume!

References:

Chronicle of Higher Education, The. 2017. “The Trends Report.” The Chronicle of Higher Education,Special Report, March 3. www.chronicle.com/specialreport/The-2017-Trends-Report/95.

Connaway, Lynn Silipigni, William Harvey, Vanessa Kitzie, and Stephanie Mikitish. 2016. Action-Oriented Research Agenda on Library Contributions to Student Learning and Success: Initial Report. November 2016. http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/themes/acrl-research-agenda-nov-2016.pdf.

Connaway, Lynn Silipigni, William Harvey, Vanessa Kitzie, and Stephanie Mikitish. 2017. Action-Oriented Research Agenda on Library Contributions to Student Learning and Success. January 10, 2017. http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/themes/acrl-research-agenda-jan-2017.pdf.

Connaway, Lynn Silipigni, Donna M. Lanclos, and Erin M. Hood. 2013a. “'I Always Stick with the First Thing that Comes Up on Google. . . ' Where People Go for Information, What They Use, and Why.” Educause Review Online, December 6, http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/i-always-stick-first-thing-comes-google-where-people-go-information-what-they-use-and-why.

Connaway, Lynn Silipigni, Donna M. Lanclos, and Erin M. Hood. 2013b. “'I Find Google a Lot Easier than Going to the Library Website.' Imagine Ways to Innovate and Inspire Students to Use the Academic Library.” Proceedings of the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) 2013 conference, April 10-13, 2013, Indianapolis, IN.http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/confsandpreconfs/2013/papers/Connaway_Google.pdf.

Connaway, Lynn Silipigni, David White, Donna Lanclos, and Alison Le Cornu. 2013. “Visitors and Residents: What Motivates Engagement with the Digital Information Environment?” Information Research18, no. 1, http://InformationR.net/ir/18-1/paper556.html.

Domonoske, Camila. 2016. “Students Have ‘Dismaying’ Inability to Tell Fake News from Real, Study Finds.” NPR, November 23, http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/23/503129818/study-finds-students-have-dismaying-inability-to-tell-fake-news-from-real.

English Oxford Living Dictionaries. 2016. “Word of the Year 2016 Is...” Accessed August 23. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/word-of-the-year/word-of-the-year-2016.

IFLA. 2017. “How to Spot Fake News.” Accessed August 23, 2017. https://www.ifla.org/publications/node/11174.

Maheshwari, Sapna. 2016. “How Fake News Goes Viral: A Case Study.” The New York Times, November 20, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/business/media/how-fake-news-spreads.html.

McCoy, Terrence. 2016. “For the ‘New Yellow Journalists,’ Opportunity Comes in Clicks and Bucks.” The Washington Post, November 20, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/for-the-new-yellow-journalists-opportunity-comes-in-clicks-and-bucks/2016/11/20/d58d036c-adbf-11e6-8b45-f8e493f06fcd_story.html.

Najmabadi, Shannon. 2017a. “How Colleges Can Teach Students to be Good Citizens.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 13, http://www.chronicle.com/article/How-Colleges-Can-Teach/238891.

Najmabadi, Shannon. 2017b. “How One College Put Information Literacy into Its Curriculum.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 26, http://www.chronicle.com/article/How-One-College-Put/239293.

Najmabadi, Shannon. 2017c. “Information Literacy: It’s Become a Priority in an Era of Fake News.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 26, http://www.chronicle.com/article/Information-Literacy/239264.

Oxford Living Dictionaries. 2017. “Post-Truth.” Accessed August 23. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/post-truth.

[1]This adage is attributed to Peter Steiner’s July 5, 1993 cartoon in The New Yorker.

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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S COLUMN

Having just celebrated my 3-month anniversary as Executive Director of ASIS&T, I am struck by how much I have learned and how much I have yet to learn! I have discovered that there are many moving parts to this organization. We have a tremendously vibrant volunteer community that is working hard on your behalf, often with little or no support from ASIS&T headquarters. That will be changing as we build in staff liaison roles to committees and award juries to help them in their work. But I continue to be amazed by this committed volunteer workforce that helps make it all happen here!

This is a busy time of year for us as we prepare for the 80thAnnual Meeting and all that entails; select award winners for recognition at that meeting; and prepare for a new fiscal year. The Board held its annual retreat earlier this month in Crystal City at the site of our upcoming Annual Meeting. Over two days the Board discussed a great many topics and made a great many decisions. Those decisions are detailed in the Governance Report that is part of this issue of Inside ASIS&T. Many of the decisions made at this meeting will have considerable impact on the programs and policies of the Association, so I invite you to review that report and give us your feedback.

I want to draw your attention to some of the more significant decisions and invite you to read further in the Governance Report. These include the decision to suspend publication of the Bulletinas we undergo a strategic review of all of our publications to ensure that they are serving the right audiences and meeting our objectives; the decision to set a meeting venue rotation policy of meeting in North America in even numbered years and outside North America in odd numbered years, with the 2019 Annual Meeting planned for the Asia/Pacific region; the decision to require membership in ASIS&T as a part of award eligibility; the decision to move submission deadlines for all international awards to March 31 each year; and the decision to sunset the Knowledge Management Task Force. Again, more information on these and other decisions can be found in the Governance Report.

We are very excited about the Annual Meeting and hope that you are making your plans to attend. Early bird registration is available through September 15th. We have two outstanding keynote speakers who you won’t want to miss, and a technical program that is truly outstanding. And then there are a myriad of fun social/networking events that will remind you why ASIS&T is your professional home…because your friends and family are all here! Finally, we are planning some terrific tours in the DC area for the down time on Saturday and Wednesday afternoons. As you know, the Board decided recently to extend the length of the Annual Meeting to run until Wednesday afternoon. That decision was made after the contract with the hotel had been signed. The hotel was not able to extend our remarkable $119 rate through the night of the 1stbut is giving us a discounted rate of $185 for the night of November 1stfor those of you staying on until the 2nd.

Other upcoming events of note include a Regional Meeting in Ohioon September 8th and a Regional Meeting in Berlin on October 4th. Please consider joining us for one of these gatherings. Regional meetings provide an opportunity to get to know your local colleagues and strengthen your local network. The EuroIA Summitis also just around the corner. This innovative and exciting meeting will take place in Stockholm at the end of September and we are anticipating a record turnout.

We have a great deal going on structurally at ASIS&T as well. As you’ll see elsewhere in this issue, we have welcomed three new staff and are saying goodbye to two staff in the next few weeks. Sandra Holder, Receptionist and Office Assistant, will be leaving ASIS&T at the end of August and Vanessa Foss, Director of Meetings & Membership, will be leaving at the end of September. Both have served ASIS&T for more than two decades and we appreciate their loyalty and commitment to the organization.

Finally, as we bid farewell to two colleagues, Sandra Holder and Vanessa Foss, we are delighted to welcome new colleagues as well. More information on ASIS&T Comings and Goingsappears later in this issue.

Please feel free to reach out to me with any thoughts you have on how we can be of service to you. We truly want you to feel that ASIS&T is your professional home and that you can count on us when you need us. Just let us know what you need.

I hope to see many of you in Crystal City at the end of October.

Warm regards,
Lydia

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ASIS&T ROUNDUP

Governance Update
The ASIS&T Board met earlier this month for their annual Board retreat, held this year in Crystal City, Virginia at the site of our upcoming Annual Meeting. There were several significant decisions made at this meeting of which we want to make you aware.

1. THE BULLETIN
The Board voted to suspend publication of the Bulletin while we conduct a strategic overview of our publications offerings. This decision was prompted by several factors, and was informed by readership analytics that demonstrated that the Bulletin is not reaching the audience it is intended to serve. While the Bulletin in its current form will be retired, we remain committed to a publication that helps bridge the gap between research and practice—the role that the Bulletin was designed to serve. We welcome your input to help us determine how to craft a new communications vehicle that will serve that purpose using a more interactive and dynamic platform.

2. ANNUAL MEETING VENUE ROTATION
The Board voted to set a regular meeting pattern that would allow staff, volunteers, and members to better plan for future meetings. The meeting pattern, starting in 2018, will be as follows:

• Even numbered years: North America. The 2018 meeting will be in Vancouver, BC)

• Odd numbered years: Outside North America. Planning is underway to select a meeting site in the Asia Pacific region for 2019, with the   intent of returning to Europe in 2021.

The potential involvement of local volunteers to help plan and execute meetings outside of North America will be a critical factor in selecting venues for future Annual Meetings. If you believe your city would be a good potential venue for the Annual Meeting, please contact Lydia Middleton.

3. AWARDS
The committees that administer ASIS&T’s various international awards will be charged in 2018 with revisiting the award guidelines, criteria, and selection process to ensure that the nominations and selection process is as transparent and efficient as possible. Additional modifications to ASIS&T International Awards include:

• Making membership in ASIS&T a criterion for eligibility for all of ASIS&T’s International Awards. Nominees that are not current members of ASIS&T will be given the opportunity to join the Association in order to achieve eligibility. For awards where there are multiple individuals within a single nomination (eg. the Book of the Year award or the Best JASIS&T Article), at least one author must be a member of ASIS&T.

• Aligning the submission deadline for all ASIS&T International awards to March 31 of each year. This will allow ample time for award winners to obtain visas and arrange travel so as to be at Annual Meeting to receive their award.

4. FINANCE

• The Board approved the FY2018 budget which projects a positive bottom line of just over $15,000.

• The Board voted to restrict $150,000 in net assets to be designated as the Lois Lunin Fund. Criteria for how those fund are to be used will be recommended by staff.

5. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT TASK FORCE
The Knowledge Management Task Force was disbanded. The responsibilities for carrying out the recommendations of the task force will fall to ASIS&T staff.

6. DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
The Board discussed the report that came out of the Diversity & Inclusion Luncheon held at last year’s Annual Meeting and agreed that this topic should be threaded throughout ASIS&T programming. A statement on Diversity & Inclusion will be included in the committee charges for all ASIS&T committees in 2018.
These were the significant decisions and actions taken by the Board at this meeting. If you would like additional information on any of these actions, please contact Lydia Middleton.

Comings and Goings
Sandra Holder, Receptionist and Office Assistant, will be leaving ASIS&T at the end of August and Vanessa Foss, Director of Meetings & Membership, will be leaving at the end of September. Both have served ASIS&T for more than two decades and we appreciate their loyalty and commitment to the organization.

Maureen Markey has joined the organization as the Director of Marketing and Development and is responsible for membership, marketing and communications. Maureen comes to ASIS&T with experience at the American Nurses Association and National Industries for the Blind. She has an MBA in Marketing from The George Washington University and a BS in Journalism and French from Boston University.

DeVonne Parks has joined ASIS&T as the Director of Meetings and Events and is responsible for meeting planning. DeVonne comes to ASIS&T from the National Information Standards Organization and previously spent ten years at the Special Library Association. She has a BA in Business Communication Technology from Cedarville University.

New Members

ASIS&T welcomes all the recent new members:

Bar-Ilan University, Department of Information Science
Darell Rodgers
Wasim Ahmed
Boris Badurina
Ruwan Bandara
Margaret Beckley
Joshua Borycz
Gaohui Cao
Yung-Sheng Chang
Jennifer Chaput
Tsangyao Chen
Xiufeng Cheng
Yu Chi
Nicole Dalmer
Jane C. Daugherty
Qingxing Dong
David Durden
Olukemi Fadehan
Kaja Fietkiewicz
Souvick Ghosh
Tina Griffin
Colleen Harris
Donal Heidenblad
David Heilbrun
Ms. Sherri Hinrichs-Farber
Aera Hoffman
Yuerong Hu
Cary Jim
Soohyung Joo
Mr. John Joyner
Jennine Knight
Kolina Koltai
Yuting Liao
Ariell Lomax
Soumik Mandal
Tisha Mentnech
Chao Min
Mahdi Najafabadi
Takashi Namekawa
Bryce Newell
Owoeye Oluwaseun
Yohanan Ouaknine
Ms. Elisabeth Shook
Juliane Stiller
Curtis Tenney
Alexander Thurman
Violeta Trkulja
Ferdinand Virtudes
Akhilesh K.S. Yadav
Mugaba Yves
Franziska Zimmer
Annuska Zolyomi

2017 Board of Directors Election Results

ASIS&T Board Elections were conducted between July 7 and August 11, 2017. A total of 417 ballots were cast representing 26% of the AIS&T Membership. The results are as follows:

President-Elect: Elaine Toms, PhD, University of Sheffield, UK

Directors-at-Large: Emily Knox, PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Soo Young Rieh, PhD, University of Michigan

Congratulations to our new Board Members!

In Memoriam

ASIS&T is sad to announce that Ray R. Larson, long-time professor in the School of Information, UC Berkeley, and ASIS&T member, passed away on June 17, 2017. Dr. Larson was a member of ASIS&T since 1980 and served as a Director of the ASIS&T Board of Directors from 1998 – 2000 and on the JASIST editorial board in 2005.

He also served as Chair to several SIGs, jurist and Chair in 2013 and 2014, respectively, on the Best Information Science Book Jury, and Chair of the Best JASIST Paper Jury in 2005.

Dr. Larson specialized in information retrieval and database systems, with an emphasis on the system internals. He was involved in the design and development of UC public access online union catalog (MELVYL). He also helped design the algorithms used in the Inktomi web search engine. He is the principal designer of the Cheshireinformation retrieval system, and active in internation IR evaluations including cross-language evaluations like CLEF and NTCIR.

Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family and friends.

ASIS&T New Leaders

Congratulations to all who have been selected as one of the 2017-2018 New Leaders. We look forward to working with you over the next two years and beyond!

Tim Gorichanaz, Drexel University, Pennsylvania, US

Tamarack Hockin, San Jose State University, California, US

Aylin Ilhan, University of Dusseldorf, Dusseldorf, Germany

Md. Anwarul Islam, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Nushrat Khan, North Carolina State University, North Carolina, US

Saguna, Shankar,SLAIS, The University of British Columbia, Canada

Yiwei Wang, Rutgers University, New Jersey, US

Nosheen Warraich, University of Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

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AWARDS

Congratulations to all of the following ASIS&T award winners. Awards will be presented at the 2017 Annual Conference where you can meet and greet all of the winners.

James M. Cretsos Award: Jeremy McLaughlin

Research in Information Science Award: Caroline Haythornthwaite

Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award: Dr. Michael Twidale

Chapter of the Year Award: European Chapter

Best JASIST Paper Award: Dorte Madsen, Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen, Denmark, “Liberating Interdisciplinarity from Myth:  An Exploration of the Discursive Construction of Identities in Information Studies”, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 67(11), 2697-2709.

International Paper Contest Award

  • First Place:Saira Hanif Soroyaof Punjab, Lahore Department of Information Management, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan - "Subject-Based Reading Behavior Differences of Young Adults under Emerging Digital Paradigms"
  • Second Place: Masimba Clyde Muziringa, Medical Librarian at the College of Health Sciences Library, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe - "Impact of Research Evidence in Clinical Practice"
  • Third Place: Nosheen Fatima Warraich, Department of information Management, University of Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan - "Attitudes and Perceptions about Linked Data Technologies: A Survey of Information Professionals in Pakistan"

Information Science Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Scholarship:  Leslie Thomson, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina - “Investigating Information Creating and Informal Information Providing: A Grounded Theory Study of the Information Practices and Role of Serious YouTuber.”

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ASIS&T at 2017 IFLA

ASIS&T co-hosted a dinner with the Association for Library and Information Science Educators (ALISE), the iSchool Caucus, and the Chinese American Librarian Association (CALA) at the 2017 IFLA Conference in Wroclaw, Poland. The dinner was held at Piwnica Świdnicka, a restaurant in the vaulted cellars of the Old Wroclaw Town Hall. It is reported to be the oldest restaurant in Europe, founded in 1273 and that Goethe and Chopin have dined there. Approximately 40 individuals joined the dinner and it was a great way to connect with friends and colleagues and to meet new ones. There was an abundance of delicious food. Our thanks go to Krystyna Matusiak, Assistant Professor at the University of Denver, who made the arrangements in Polish; Clara Chu, Director of the Mortenson Center, who sent invitations to individuals and listservs, as well as to Michael Seadle, iCaucus Executive Director; Dietmar Wolfram, ALISE President; Lian Ruan, CALA Executive Director; and Lydia Middleton, ASIS&T Executive Director.

Lynn also presented the closing keynote, the Behaviors of the Elusive User: Strategies for Library Ethnography, at the workshop, Understanding Your Library from the Inside Out: A Workshop in Library Ethnography for User Assessment, sponsored by the Social Science Libraries with Africa Section on 22 August, 2017 at the Wroclaw University Library in Wroclaw, Poland. The session was led by Celia Emmelhainz, Anthropology and Qualitative Research Librarian at the University of California, Berkeley. It was a great day talking about ethnographic research methods with 30 motivated participants.

Her final keynote, Communicating Library Impact Beyond Library Walls: A Collaborative Effort, was presented on August 23, 2017 at the IFLA Division I session, Demonstrating value and / or assessing the impact of different types of libraries and information services:  can you spot the difference? The session was held at the IFLA Conference venue and was very well attended. Ways to assess libraries and information provisions to articulate their value is an important topic in today’s social, cultural, and economic environments.

IFLA is a great opportunity for ASIS&T and its members to participate in the global agenda and themes of the information communities. It is so enlightening to learn how others are addressing everyday challenges and opportunities on a global scale.

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CHAPTER AND SIG NEWS

Central Ohio, Northern Ohio, and Indiana Chapters

The Central Ohio, Northern Ohio, and Indiana chapters of ASIS&T will be hostingthe 2017Midwest Regional Chapters Conference. The meeting is scheduled on Friday, September 8 at the new Main Branch of Columbus (OH) Metropolitan Libraries, with keynotes by Patrick Losinski (CEO, Columbus Libraries) and Lynn Sillipigni Connaway (Senior Research Scientist, OCLC and ASIS&T President) and three panels on the Right to Be Forgotten, Evolving Service Landscapes for Academic and Public Librarians, and Big Data Management and Digital Privacy.

Please forward to your chapters, colleagues, and students. We hope to offer hospitality and to see many of you in Columbus!

European Chapter

Berlin

A regional European meeting is scheduled in Berlin on Oct. 4 at Humboldt University.  Learn moreabout educational sessions and registration.

Bonn

At the “Open Southeast Asia”meeting in Bonn, the European Chapter held its own workshop with the goal of bringing together people with Western and Asian backgrounds to share ideas and best practices about how to deal with open data.

The workshop was designed as hands-on. All participants were invited to contribute to the discussions and findings. Within the workshop, they focused the discussion on two questions:

  • How is the access to open data provided in Southeast Asia and Germany?
  • What is the value added of open data in Southeast Asia and Germany?

The aim was to identify whether there are differences in the understanding of open data and its impact and if we were able to learn from each other in the open discussion workshop format. Results of this workshop will be submitted to the journal südostasien3/2017.

We are looking forward to establishing a new Special Interest Group Open Data and to enable and share our research on this topic within the ASIS&T community. If you like the idea of introducing a SIG Open Data, please contact Agnesagnes.mainka@hhu.deto coordinate further steps.

New ASIS&T Chapter

The first ASIS&T chapter in South America has been approved in Brazil. The chapter will facilitate networking and professional development activities that address their needs while promoting ASIS&T membership in the region. The officers are:

Interim Chair: Profa. Dra. Gercina Lima

Interim Chair Elect: Prof. Dr. Mauricio B. Almeida

Interim Assembly Representative: Profa. Dra. Elisangela Aganette

Interim Alternative Assembly Representative: Prof. Dr. Christiano Pessanha

Interim Treasurer and Secretary: Profa. Dra. Benildes Maculan

Chapter Advisors: Profa. Dra. Beatriz V. Cendón, Profa. Dra. Célia da Consolação Dias,

Profa. Dra. Maria Luiza Almeida Campos.

ASIS&T SIG-DL

SIG-DL is again offering a Student Engagement Award. Applications and nominations are due August 27.

#SIGDLChats, a Twitter-based online discussion of issues in digital librarianship, has continued through the year. Check out the SIG-DL websitefor more updates!

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2017 ANNUAL MEETING UPDATE

Conference Schedule

We hope to see all of you at the ASIS&T 2017 Annual Meeting.  The entire conference and educational session schedule is now available on the conference website. Register today and save $55 with the early bird price available now through Friday, September 15.

80thAnniversary Activities

  • Looking for members willing to share their favorite ASIS&T stories. These will be recorded with participant permission. More information coming.
  • Seeking submissions of images from ASIS&T history, people, places, events, etc. for integration into an interactive display that will be introduced at the 80th Anniversary reception on Sunday, October 29th at 6:30 pm.
  • Requesting the names and, if possible, images, of recently deceased members. These individuals will be honored during the 80th Anniversary reception.
  • An area for crowdsourcing metadata/tags for a history of annual meeting images http://www.asis.org/gallery3/will be set up at the meeting. More information about the location and hours coming!

If you have photos or information to submit, please contact klabarre@illinois.edu.

Event Changes

We changed the schedule this year in honor of the 80thanniversary milestone. We will be hosting a University Alumni Tea on Tuesday, October 31, 2017, instead of a reception.

The Professors  will be performing on Sunday, October 29, after the combined Welcome and 80thAnniversary Reception.

The Women Leaders of the Information Field Happy Hour is back by popular demand and will be held on Saturday, October 28. We are looking forward to SIG CON on Halloween so don’t forget your costume!

Theater

See the Book of Mormon which will be playing at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC during the 2017 Annual Meeting. More information on dates, times and ticket purchase is available through Kennedy Center.

Tours

Tours will be available to schedule at the Library of Congress and National Archives on the afternoons of Saturday, October 28 and Wednesday, Nov. 1. More information coming on times and how to reserve your place.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

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WEBINARS

September 7, 2017
11:00AM - 12:00PM EDT
ASIS&T Meet the Author Series:Documents That Changed the Way We Live - Joseph Janes

September 20, 2017
1:00PM - 2:15PM EDT
Information Visualization for the Future Generation Catalog- Charles-Antoine Julien 

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